Party in the Millennium Ring
by Reneey Umbra
Summary: Sequel to Party in the Millennium Puzzle.
1. Here We Go Again

So after many hours (coughminutescough) of chasing Reneey around the city, Lyn gave it up as a lost cause and stopped at an all-night Starbucks for a mocha frappuccino. For some bizarre reason that was entirely her own, however, Reneey still kept on running.

It was eleven PM, and as Lyn took a sip of her frap and walked outside, she figured she had better find her friend before she got killed.. or before Reneey killed anyone.

Meanwhile Reneey, who still thought Lyn was chasing her, stopped at a corner for a breather. After about five minutes of resting and trying to get her breathing back to normal, she began to run but slipped on something.

"Ow, what the fuck?" Reneey wondered, looking at what she had slipped on. It was a card. Raising her right eyebrow, she picked it up and read.

"Shooting Star... Make a wish, and it comes true."

Hm... I wish.. for a party.. in the Millennium.. RING!

The card started glowing, so bright that Lyn could see something shining in the dark corner.

Somehow, she knew it was Reneey's doing.

Lyn started to yell Reneey's name, but it was too late. Light wrapped around her and, thus, both girls were knocked unconscious.

---

"Oi.. Wink, knock it off," Lyn mumbled, swatting at a nonexistant little short-legged dog. "Stop pulling my hair!"

She lazily opened her eyes, then, just like two years before in the Millennium Puzzle, her eyes snapped open wide.

"RENEEY!"

"WHAT!?"

"WHY DID DARK NECROFEAR -- _YOUR DAD'S MONSTER_ -- JUST YANK MY HAIR!?"

"IDK! I'M SLEEPING, FUCK OFF!"

Lyn's eye twitched and she muttered under her breath, "You are soooooo dead this time..."

"Wait.. did ya say Daddy's monster?" Reneey asked, opening her eyes. She then proceeded to scream, "MY WISH CAME TRUE! THANK YOU, SHOOTING STAR CARD!"

"Reneey... please... please, for the sake of all that is good and holy... and for the sake of your own life... tell me that we are NOT in the Millennium Puzzle."

"Of course not!"

"Oh, okay, then," Lyn said, sounding relieved.

"We're in the Millennium Ring!"

"Who dares to enter my home?" a voice sneered, but then a surprised and confused look crossed the face of the spirit of the Millennium Ring. "What the -- what the fuck are you two doing here!?"

Bakura glared at them both, but Lyn got the harsher one for obvious reasons.

"SHOOTING STAR IS THE AWESOMEST CARD EVER!" Reneey said as she span around, yelling loudly.

"Could someone tell why why the fucking hell you two are here?" Bakura demanded.

"Ask your daughter," Lyn growled, ignoring Bakura's sneer and glaring at Reneey.

"Reneey, what is going on here?" he asked, lightening his glare a bit upon his daughter.

"See, I find this card, Shooting Star, and I made a wish!"

"And what wish was...?"

"Having a party in the Millennium Ring! Duh, Daddy!"

Bakura turned white -- er, well, _whiter_. "Oh, Ra, not again!"

Just then there were shouts, curses, insults, THUMPS, and --

"What the!?"

"NOW THE PARTY CAN BEGIN!" Reneey screamed.

"Oh, no, not _again_!" the gang groaned as one.


	2. A Pretty Card

"RENEEY! YOU WERE BANNED FROM MAKING WISHES!" Joey yelled.

Reneey just shrugged and said, "Don't blame me -- blame the card Shooting Star!"

"Um, Reneey," Yugi said slowly, "there is no card called Shooting Star. There's a card called Shooting Star Bow: Ceal, but not just Shooting Star."

"Well, look at this!" Reneey ordered, holding the card up to Yugi's face.

Yugi sweatdropped and said, "Reneey, that's ap iece of cardboard that somebody glued a picture of a shooting star and then wrote -- messily, by the way -- 'make a wish.'"

"And?"

Lyn promptly began banging her head against the nearest wall. "Heaven save us," she begged in a weary voice.

"So let's get this party started!" Reneey said, grinning, as she bounced up and down.

"Hey! You people left me alone for two full years!" Malik growled. "And where's my rod!?"

Atem blinked at him. "You were in my puzzle all this time!?"

"Yes! Because you losers left me there!"

"Well, it's not like we could go back," Tea mumbled.

"EVERYBODY OUT OF MY HOUSE NOW!" Bakura screeched.

Lyn stopped banging her head long enough to glare at him and ask in a lethal hiss, "And how, exactly, do you propose we go about that? Please, tell me! I'd love a suggestion!"

"I don't know! Irina Bakura Umbra! Make a wish to get us out of here now!"

"No!"

"Why not!?"

"Because you called me by my real name! Nobody calls me by my real name and goes unpunished!" Reneey finished with a hmph.

Everybody did a face fall, and then Joey growled, "Great going there, thief!"

Lyn sighed and said darkly, "See, this is why you don't hear Dad calling me Lyndotia Ahnashawn Elumo. Well, that, and because he probably didn't even know what my full name was until now..."

"Wait," Atem said slowly, blinking at Lyn. "Shouldn't your middle name by my name?"

"Maybe it was in Egypt, but.. wait, what the crap kind of name is Lyndotia Atem Elumo, anyway?"

"Make that wish now!" Bakura snapped.

"No!" Reneey snapped back.

"Um.. hello, I have a suggestion here," Yugi interjected. "Reneey, I have a really pretty card..."

Reneey's attention snapped to Yugi. "How pretty?"

"Um.. really pretty."

"Hey!" Atem objected, looking in a quite astounded way at Lyn. "It's a good name! You should be proud to have my name!"

"It's also a _guy's_ name," Lyn said exasperatedly. "So, what, you expect me to go around calling myself Lyndotia Atem Elumo from now on? Even though the name written on my birth certificate is clearly --"

"What birth certificate?" Atem asked with raised eyebrows. "I didn't think you had one here."

"Is it shiny?" Reneey asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, very shiny."

"What's the card?"

"Umm..."

Yugi looked at Lyn, who mouthed 'Spirit Shield!' before returning an annoyed glare to her father and growling, "What, so you're saying I don't exist? I wasn't born as Lyn Elumo, I'm just 'the pharaoh's daughter' from five thousand years ago?"

"Not what I meant! Urgh, you know what? Never mind! Keep your name!"

Atem shook his head and walked away, muttering, "Teenagers..."

Then Yugi caught Lyn's eye and mouthed back, 'But I don't have Spirit Shield!'

Lyn had to fight off a maddening desire to smack herself in the forehead. Jeez, the kid needed lessons in lying. 'White Hole?' she mouthed back questioningly before yelling at Atem's retreating back, "I'M EIGHTEEN EFFING YEARS OLD, DADBURN IT! STOP TALKING TO ME LIKE I'M FOUR!"

"Well, I'm still your father!" Atem shot back.

"White Hole," Yugi said out loud, and Reneey blinked.

"I already have it..."

"Did I say White Hole? I meant..."

Yugi looked back at Lyn, but she was currently stalking after her father with fire in her green eyes and hissing, "Oh, yeah? How about you prove it, then, if you wanna be a jerk about it? Wanna back it up before you try to use it against me? Do you _remember_ being my father, oh almighty pharaoh dingbat?"

Bakura blinked and muttered under his breath, "Wow. The girl's almost as good at insulting the pharaoh as I am."

"Um, Daddy, not to burst your bubble.. but saying 'pharaoh' in a tone of disgust really isn't an insult."

"It is when I say it," Bakura said, smirking. "Anyway, what's a better insult than questioning his parentage of the girl when he can't even remember!? _I_ should have thought of that!"

Reneey ignored her dad and asked Yugi, "What pretty card!?"

"Um.. Gift of the Mystical Elf!"

Reneey's eyes got bigger. "You have Gift of the Mystical Elf!?"

Atem blinked, then blinked again, and finally his eyes went downcast. "Yes, you're right," he said quietly. "I don't remember anything.. but I do know that you are my daughter, and I am your father."

And then he left for.. well.. somewhere in the Ring, leaving Lyn standing there and looking quite shocked.

"Great going, Lyn," Bakura said with a smirk on his face, clapping his hands mockingly.

Lyn's left eye began to twitch, followed by the fingers of her left hand. Finally she clenched her fists and whirled on Bakura, yelling thunderously, "WHY DON'T YOU SHUT YOUR DAGBLAME MOUTH BEFORE I BREAK YOUR JAW AND HAVE IT WIRED SHUT!?"

A/N: Lyn here to tell you that something amazing happened in this chapter. My Seto obsession didn't rear its -- well, not ugly; stunningly gorgeous head. He's not even in this chap, in fact. That really must be some sort of record for an obsessed Seto fangirl...

Oh, yeah, and... my stars! Do I detect some hint of actual plottage in this random fic!? XD


	3. A Father Daughter Moment

Atem was walking.. well, somewhere. Truthfully, he was rather deeply hurt by Lyn's words, but refused to show it, anyway. Finally he leaned against a wall with his arms crossed over his chest and sighed.

_You know, maybe she's right. Maybe I should stop treating her like a child... But she's my daughter.. and I don't want to lose her..._

_Not again..._

---

Back with the gang, Reneey slapped her dad upside the head.

"Awesome, there, Daddy," she snapped sarcastically, and Seto blinked, first at Bakura and then at the infuriated Lyn.

"What just happened?"

"What did I do!?" Bakura growled, but then he got slapped by both Reneey _and_ Ryou.

"Idiot," Ryou sighed.

"Dadburned idiotic carpetbagging retarded imbecilic sack of pond scum that serves as a pathetic excuse for a faded remnant of a human being!"

Seto blinked again. "Wow," he observed out loud. "I haven't heard her use that many insults in one sentence since Tea gave a friendship speech over the intercom at Domino High."

"What are you talking about, girl!? There are no carpets here!"

Reneey sighed. "Lyn, go to ya dad, okay?" she suggested, gently pushing Lyn in the direction Atem had taken off in.

Lyn gave one last glare in Bakura's general direction before heaving a cross between a sigh and a growl and heading off in an attempt to figure out where on earth -- or where in the Millennium Ring -- Atem might have gone.

Somehow, it felt like she walked forever. Maybe it was just because she felt so dadburned guilty. Why did she have to be so stubborn and combatative, anyway? Oh, yes, heaven forbid she actually give up for once.. and not wind up hurting anybody's feelings...

_Stupid dark hallways,_ Lyn grumbled mentally as she glared at the dimly lit walls around her. _Darkness never helped anybody feel better,_ she reflected darkly, _just makes it easier to feel down. Not that you really want a lot of brightness when you feel down, anyway... Jeez, why can't I just keep my mouth shut?_

Lyn had never been the type to cry over spilt milk, but when she knew she had hurt someone without meaning to -- and even sometimes when she had -- she could actually feel her heart ache. Maybe she couldn't take back what she had said, but at least she could try to remedy it.

And just as she was thinking that, she turned a corner and saw him. Atem had gradually slid down from where he had been leaning against the wall earlier so that he was now sitting on the floor with his arms lying limply on his knees and his head down. Lyn felt another sharp pang of guilt, but he didn't seem to have noticed her yet.

Atem sighed. "Maybe I should have apologized..."

Lyn blinked in surprise and then hung back, deciding that she would eavesdrop a bit before making her entrance.

"I mean, I really should stop treating her like a child... yet it's so hard to believe she's already eighteen, now! But still, I don't want to lose her.. Not again... Never again."

He shook his head slightly and then went on murmuring: "Maybe I should try to stop protecting her. I did stop protecting Joey, and he went far. Yes, that's it! I'm going to find Lyn and apologize!" Atem declared, standing up, and it was just then that Lyn stepped out of the shadows with tears shining in her soft green eyes.

"Oh, Dad," she choked out, fighting both her tears and a mad desire to laugh at his reasoning.

"Lyn, what's wrong?" Atem asked, shocked that Lyn was there and even moreso that there were tears in her eyes. He had never seen her cry before.

Putting his arm around her, he repeated, "Come on, tell me what's wrong."

Shaking her head a little harder than was strictly necessary, Lyn somehow managed to smile slightly even as her chin trembled. "_You're_ wrong," she whispered in an almost amused sort of way. "Even when you're right, you're wrong. You're not going to lose me, Dad, you just need to lighten up a little!"

Atem blinked in confusion. "What? Wait -- you were here? The whole entire time?"

He didn't wait for an answer, just sighed and said slowly, "Lyn... I know I won't lose you, but.. well.. I don't have any memories at all of us. I don't even remember your mother!"

Then he dropped his gaze to the floor as he went on, "And I want to make it up, to spend time together, but... Well, soon you're going to end up getting married.. probably to Kaiba.. and.. I know I have to let you go, but..."

There were tears in his own eyes, but just like his daughter, he tried his best not to show them or let them fall.

Dumbfounded though she was by what he was saying, Lyn paused for only a moment before throwing her arms around him. It took all her strength not to sob onto his shoulder, but despite the effort, her voice still shook as she said, "You still don't get it! You don't have to let me _go_, Dad -- you just have to let me grow up."

Atem smiled a little as her wrapped his own arms around her, too. "I know I do," he said as he rested his chin on her head. "But it's hard to do so," he admitted in a whisper.

There was a short pause, and then he went on, "And I apologize for treating you like a child. You know I love you, right?"

Lyn actually laughed then. Okay, maybe it was more like a strangled half chuckle half sob, but it was close enough.

"I know," Lyn said truthfully, "but I'm the one who should be sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did -- it hurt you, and I didn't mean for it to."

And she smiled slightly into his shoulder as she added, "And I love you, too, Dad."

"I know you didn't mean it." Atem paused, chuckled and murmured, "Something tells me you got your stubbornness from your mother."


	4. A Ring in a Ring

As Atem and Lyn walked back to the group, their eyes widened in unison.

Reneey and Malik were kissing, Mai and Joey were kissing, Tea and Yugi were kissing, and Bakura and Ryou had to kiss.

"What the.."

"HECK?" Lyn finished Atem's sentence in a yell, and Reneey broke off the kiss to blink at them and then finally explain.

"Okay, well, while ya two were off, like, bonding, we played Spin the Millennium Rod! I got Malik, Mai got Joey, Tea got Yugi, Ryou got Daddy... Seto refused to play -- gee, I wonder why, ya know? -- and he wouldn't even let Mokuba play. Joey wouldn't let Serenity play, either, so then of course Duke and Tristan wouldn't, and everybody else all said they had to go to the bathroom. So yeah."

Reneey then went back to making out with Malik, and Bakura broke off the kiss, gagging.

"I'm never playing that revolting game again!"

"Hey, you bit my tongue and now it hurts!" Ryou whined.

"Eurgh," Lyn said, shuddering and feeling a sudden desire to walk away as quickly as possible and find something to wash her eyes out with.

"Okay, you two can stop now," Bakura snarled at Malik, who quickly broke off the kiss, much to Reneey's annoyance.

"So.. you two cool now?" Joey asked, finally detatching his lips from Mai's to look at Atem and Lyn.

Atem nodded. "Yes."

"Good."

And Joey promptly went right back to kissing Mai, making Lyn raise an eyebrow at them and then shake her head as if she didn't even want to know.

"Daddyyy," Reneey growled, pouting.

"I think someone else needs a father-daughter moment," Yugi said with a smirk.

Reneey promptly took this opportunity to turn to Yugi and grin. "So, Yugi, about that card..."

"We have father-daughter moments," Bakura snarled.

"Like?" Lyn asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Like.. um.. er... Well, you don't need to know!"

"Because you don't have any," Lyn taunted.

"Well.. we.. Duel! Yes, there!"

Everyone but Reneey sweatdropped. Even Mai and Joey managed to pry themselves apart long enough to stare at the white-haired spirit.

"That's... never mind," Atem said, shaking his head.

Suddenly Seto grabbed Lyn's wrist and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Let's go somewhere more private. I have a surprise for you."

Lyn's right eyebrow raised again, but she looked around at everyone else -- no one was paying attention, they were all still busy blinking at Bakura -- and allowed herself to be led away with a confused look on her face.

Seto had been planning this, in some corner of his mind, for two years, and today was the day. But then that baka of a thief's daughter had just HAD to make that stupid wish. Now they were trapped in the Millennium Ring for who knew how long, with Lyn's father no less.

But Seto was determined. He had talked it over with Mokuba, too, and the boy had thought it was a great idea. Of course, Seto had planned it all a little differently in his head... but he wasn't one to be dissuaded. He had made up his mind and now he just had to go through with it.

They had made it to a dark corner, and Seto took something from a pocket hidden within his trenchcoat without Lyn seeing.

"Lyn.. you are the only woman ever to make me feel the way I do. You opened my heart even after such pain, and are the person I trust with it the most. I love you, and it would be a great honor..."

He got down on one knee, and Lyn was sure that her eyes must have been wide and her mouth probably slightly open. Funny, her mind was working so fast that she couldn't seem to tell for certain just _what_ her expression was. But, at the same time, she felt a chill run up her spine and her face grow hot. Surely he wasn't saying...

It wasn't that she didn't want him to ask, because she certainly did. She had even imagined it a few times, tried to figure out just what he would say in her head. Hoped that he would ask some day, because she couldn't imagine ever hearing it from anyone else. But.. here? And now?

"Lyndotia Elumo..." He held out the object he had pulled from his pocket earlier; a black velvet box, which he opened to reveal a diamond ring inside. "Would you take me, Seto Kaiba, and be my bride?"

Lyn's hands suddenly began to shake, and if she didn't know better, she might have thought an electric shock had just coursed through her. Somehow it was still so unbelievable -- what were the odds that he would have asked a question like this here, of all places? What were the chances that he would have had the ring in a perfect little box just like in every story that was ever told? He must have been planning this, she realized, he must have been thinking and plotting for some time...

After a second's pause -- had it really been only a second? Just how did the human mind process thoughts so quickly, anyway? -- Seto smiled faintly and added, "Will you marry me?"

And then there was that feeling of breathlessness even as her heart seemed to be working double time. What was with all of these paradoxes, anyway? It was hard enough to think straight as it was, hard enough to want to do anything but draw in a deep breath and scream just to let out some of the pent-up emotion.

Finally she managed to take a breath -- only a short one, but it was enough. The smile crept across her face unbidden, and the dancing of her green eyes told her answer even before she could manage the barely audible whisper: "Yes."

Seto had tears in his deep blue eyes. He never cried, but this girl, the love of his life, had just accepted his proposal. He nearly dropped the box, happy tears spilling down his face, as he picked Lyn up by the waist, twirled her around, and kissed her passionately.

"Hey.. does anyone know where Lyn and Kaiba are?" Tristan asked finally.

Atem's eyes widened. "What.. KAIBA!"

"Uncle, I thought you accepted their relationship," Reneey said, raising her eyebrows.

"If he.. if she.. if they..." Atem blinked. "No.. they wouldn't.. not here..."


End file.
